Shainin's towering stature among editors is what enables him to see Dubai's Burj al-Arab all the way from Abu Dhabi.
I have to concur with Rob, over at the Shack, that the latest issue of The Review is very, very good.
But this should come as no surprise to those of us who know the man behind the magic at the region’s most engaging journal of ideas and criticism. Jonathan Shainin, a superb young editor with a bright future ahead of him, has managed to make the Friday politics/books/culture section of Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper a weekly must-read.
Keep it up!
Qifa Nabki 
QN,
What will happen if Jumblat joined the opposition , will that give Hezbollah and company the majority and be able to lead the government .
Posted by norman | August 2, 2009, 10:48 pmMarc Lynch’s article on the Arab Human Development Report notes that several of the authors have complained that UN officials ‘imposed fundamental changes without consulting the authors’. It seems that the authors ought to be writing these reports in an institutional framework that gives them more autonomy than the UN. Does such a framework exist in the region? The first AHDR, in 2003, pointed to the dire lack of autonomy from political power in institutions of knowledge production in the Arab world. It would be good to see an update of that assessment.
Posted by Benjamin Geer | August 3, 2009, 5:10 amAmmo Norman,
If Jumblatt actually joined the opposition, then yes, March 8 could lead the government.
Here’s how it would work. The 10 ministers that will be granted to Aoun/Hizb/Amal would resign from the cabinet, along with the 3 that Jumblatt is probably going to get. That would amount to more than one third of the cabinet resigning, so the government would fall.
The next government would then have to receive the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies, and if Jumblatt’s MP’s voted with the opposition, that would give them 68 seats (57 + Jumblatt’s 11) and they could technically push through the cabinet of their choice.
I don’t think that this is how Jumblatt’s going to play it, though. He’d prefer to remain on the fence, courting both sides.
Posted by Qifa Nabki | August 3, 2009, 8:46 amI thought he stated today that his bloc will be aligning with the president!
Posted by PN | August 3, 2009, 11:19 pm